Welcome to Bizarro World
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1197: Rachel is left with the task of gathering her newly displaced friends and explain to them the world they've been tossed into. - Berry-st series gen!2


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 56th cycle. Now cycle 57!_

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**"Welcome to Bizarro World"  
G1!Rachel, G2!Quinn, Jesse, Mike, Kurt  
Berry-St series generation 2  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
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**_a/n: Since it's all still very new, going to put it again:_****_  
The Canon world is generation 0. That's done, we've left them.  
The original AU, McKinley Jesse/Carmel Rachel, is generation 1. Ongoing.  
The new AU, as you will discover here, is generation 2. Here we go..._**  


She wanted to leave them behind before going out there. They were new and confused and it would have felt like dragging along a pair of newborn puppies, but all the same she wasn't about to leave them unattended. "Alright, come on," she'd groaned. "And don't say anything." They had gone into the hall, following the noise to guide them to whoever it was that had 'passed out,' or as she knew, 'been swapped out into another world.'

The first she had found was Kurt. He'd been in the boys' bathroom, which had made the approach a bit trickier, but she wasn't shying away, cutting through to find him lying there. He'd knocked his head on the sink going down, judging by the gash on his forehead, and Rachel was starting to think they'd have to run some major damage control, with all these people passing out around school.

"Let me through, we're in Glee Club together," she told the boys standing around him.

"What does that have to do with anything?" one of them had frowned.

"Just leave," she'd sighed, looking down to Kurt, resting a hand to his shoulder. "Hey, wake up now, come on." Maybe he would have woken up already if not for the head bump… But then he had gasped, his body shaking as the others had, as the realization no doubt hit him that something wasn't right. Then he'd felt the pain in his head, both from the jump and the bump probably, and he grasped on to her arm.

"What happened?" he asked, wincing.

"You fell, hit your head," she told him, then whispering. "Don't say anything."

"Rachel?" he recognized her and she breathed – at least that was a good sign.

"Yes, good. How many fingers?" she held up…

"Three?"

"Did you just guess?"

"A little bit…" he admitted.

"Look, some things are going to be weird, out of place, just pretend like everything is normal. They'll take you to the nurse, I'll meet you there in a bit. I have to go."

She had gotten back up, finding Quinn and Jesse just outside the door. Quinn had been looking at her, while Jesse just had confusion all over his face. She'd signalled for them to follow, and then they had gone on down the hall. Rachel found her second mark already awakened, but all she had to do was to look at him and she knew he was one of them. She'd heard a sort of stifled surprised noise come from Quinn, but she had ignored it for now.

Mike was standing, though he kept a strong grip on the lockers behind him, and he stared down at his legs like he was either mesmerized or shocked by them. She approached him, careful not to spook him. "Hey…" she spoke, and he looked up at her, almost losing his balance. "Woah, hey…" she reached to help steady him and he'd grabbed on to her, much as Kurt had. "It's okay, you'll be dizzy a bit, but that's normal. Do you know who I…"

"Am I dead?" was the first thing he asked. She was never more thankful about the fact that the onlookers had gotten their fill and had gone on with their days.

"Of course not…"

"No, but when I went to bed I didn't… I have both my legs…" he said these words like he still couldn't believe it, and she blinked.

"And you didn't before?" she asked, and he shook his head. "Damn…" she breathed, wondering just what world her Jesse and Quinn had been sent to. "Okay, but you know who I am, right?" she still had to make sure. He nodded. "Good, that's good. Look, you're not alone in this," she revealed, nodding back to Quinn and Jesse.

"Who's he?" Mike frowned and she sighed.

"Jesse. Hi," the boy raised his hand.

"I'm not giving this speech three or four times, so all of you just follow me," Rachel told them, looking back to Mike. "Can you walk?"

"I think so, just don't let go," he begged, and she smiled, letting him lean on her.

"One step at a time, there's no rush… Well, there's a little rush… Just be careful," she told him, and they were off. She watched him, leaning on her at first, saw the confusion on his face at walking on both of his own two feet again. She didn't know how long he'd been without it, but even then… After a while she could feel he was getting the use of it, and by the time they reached the nurse's office he was going along, unassisted.

Kurt was laid out on a cot, a bandage on his forehead. He was awake, staring at the ceiling. Rachel cleared her throat, and he looked over. "The nurse got called to the principal's office," he provided.

"Good, perfect," Rachel stepped in, ushering the trio along. "Everyone take a seat, we need to make this quick." Jesse and Quinn went and sat on chairs near the cot. Mike remained standing; Rachel didn't complain. "I've already told part of this to you two, but I'll try and make this as easy to understand as possible for the four of you," she sighed. She knew as much as she didn't want to she'd have to give this speech just one more time, to Santana. "What's happening to you right now, it's happened before, to me and some others. We thought it was over, but then you all came along, so I guess it's starting again."

"Yeah, what is that? I'm still not sure you're not just crazy," Jesse told her.

"I liked the other you better," she frowned, ignoring him. "The three of you might be more receptive to the fact that I'm telling you the truth, seeing as that one has his leg back," she pointed to Mike.

"He wh…" Kurt had not noticed, and he looked over, seeing Mike standing there. "How is that… Does that mean…" he looked to Mike and Quinn, who both thought the same as him a moment later.

"Matt Rutherford," Mike had turned back to Rachel. "Is he… Is he alright?"

"Yeah, I just saw him last period," she shrugged, and the three reacted with a mix of relief and shock.

"Who's M…" Jesse started, then paused when he got a frown from Rachel. "Right, never mind."

"Oh, just wait, it gets better for you," she shook her head. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. All of you, you've been put into the… the lives, and the bodies, of your other selves, the ones who are from this world here. I know how it sounds, and believe me, even I get confused still. The good news for you, as we've figured out now, is there is a way for you all to go home and for our people to get back here. They're in your world right now, leading your lives."

"Woah…" Mike breathed, thinking of the other him, waking up without a leg.

"So how do we go back?" Kurt asked.

"I don't know," Rachel shook her head.

"But you just said…" Jesse started, and she groaned.

"What I mean is I don't know what it is that needs to get fixed in order for the switch back to happen. I'm telling you now, it could be weeks, months, so you'll have to go along with it." They were quiet now, letting that sink in. "You okay?" she asked.

"What choice do we have?" Quinn shrugged.

"You kind of don't have one," Rachel admitted.

"Who else knows?" Mike asked.

"Brittany knows," Rachel told them, then, "Santana will know, too… later today. I kind of have to tell her, I owe her that."

"You're together, aren't you?" Quinn spoke softly, and Rachel looked back to her. "I've seen that look on you before… just used to be about me," she smiled wistfully.

"Well I was right about that," Rachel told herself. "A lot of things are going to be different, and I don't know what your world is like, so I won't know some things. You'll just have to be careful as you go."

"What can you tell us?" Kurt asked.

"Well…" she thought. "For starters, that's Jesse ," she turned to the one the rest of them didn't know. "I'm guessing in your world you go to Carmel High?" she asked, and he nodded. "Yeah, not here. You're a student here at McKinley, you're in our Glee Club, not theirs. I actually used to be over there, with Vocal Adrenaline, but they transferred me here while I was away," she explained.

"Wait, you have the Glee Club here?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, don't you…" Rachel turned to him.

"We did, at the start of last year, but then they shut it down," he revealed.

"Okay, well it wasn't shut down here. All five of us are in it."

"All of us?" Mike asked.

"You're kind of one of our best dancers," Rachel threw him a smile, and he breathed, like an old friend had returned to him. "Now you," she turned back to Jesse. "You're going to have to turn the attitude down. I guess not having any of us in your life really didn't do you any favors. I know there's a good guy in there though, so access him and quick. Also, the two of you might want to buddy up, because you'll have to make people believe you're a couple," she indicated both him and Quinn.

"What?" they replied at once.

"Rachel…" Quinn protested.

"No, I know, and I wish I could help you, but they'll be over there, trying to be you, living your lives, and trying to get you back home, so the least you can do is not wreck what they've got here, alright? It's only for as long as you're with people who don't know the truth. And you can't just go around telling people. You've already caused enough of a stir, passing out all over the place…" she sighed. Quinn still looked uncertain. "I've been where you've been, okay? And I'm not her, the Rachel you're with. Even if I pretended I was, would that really work for you?"

"No…" Quinn sighed.

"I'll get you back to her, I promise," she vowed, and Quinn nodded. "No one knows about me and…"

"I won't tell," Quinn promised.

"What about us? Are we dating anyone?" Mike asked.

"Uh, you're not, as far as I know," Rachel shrugged. "No girlfriend, no boyfriend," she nodded to Mike and Kurt in turn, which made the second boy look up.

"Wait, you know?" he looked concerned.

"That you're gay? Of course I do," she frowned. He startled all over again, eyes darting to Quinn and Mike. They didn't look all too thrown, which told Rachel that, even if he was apparently not out in their world, they still knew or had their doubts. "Hey, so what time is it over there? I mean what month, or…"

"It's September," Quinn told her. "We're about to start junior year."

"Yeah, that's right," Jesse looked like he'd forgotten. "I don't need to be here, I graduated already."

"Not here," Rachel told him. "You're still a senior, and we're still sophomores, for a couple more months," she stated.

When the nurse had returned and found all five of them there, she had hushed them all out except for Kurt, though he'd get to leave soon as well. Rachel had made sure they could all reach her, and she'd left them to find their own way, discover their worlds. She couldn't follow them all the time, and if she could do it, then so could they. Besides, she had her own problems… which she had to face as soon as she got home. When she had arrived, she found Santana, sitting right by her front door.

"It's later now," she didn't give her any options. She had to talk, and she would.

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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